Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In respect of the Senator's question, up to a maximum of 10% of the voted budget in capital spending can be carried forward into the next year. This is the practice that is now in place. As the Senator rightly pointed out, it is a good thing to be able to do in terms of managing budgets. When it comes to capital spend, it can be sometimes difficult to meet the spend in the 12-year cycle so the carryover is very helpful there but it is only to a maximum of 10%. It does not work that way with current expenditure so if there is a shortfall or a saving to be made, that can be reallocated. That would be the best way that money would then be used or surrendered back to Exchequer for the Government to reallocate to another Department if it was coming from one Department to another.

I thank Senator Ó Donnghaile for his very informative contribution. I do not want to get into a full debate around the budget because we already had that opportunity here but I will note on the record that spending on capital and education is up. In particular, a very good part of the Finance Bill related to early learning initiatives, which we all agree are a very important part of Government priorities regarding how we spend our money and what we see as the public good. In terms of the process around this and the opportunity we have to debate the issues here today, I note the reforms introduced by the Government regarding the budgetary process which will continue into next year and which will be enhanced. Insofar as the Department is concerned, this year, we moved to more transparency in the documents we publish and when we publish them. There is also greater engagement through the new Committee on Budgetary Oversight, which will improve and be enhanced when additional resources are given to it in terms of a dedicated unit to help Deputies and Senators to be able to debate particular issues around the budget and their own ideas as well and to have them properly costed so that we can have a fully informed budgetary process in 2017 looking into 2018.